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A Kamsack doctor is being accused of improper conduct regarding prescription drugs, including opioids, for the second time.
It’s a long list of accusations against Dr. Murray Davies in support of unprofessional conduct charges brought by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
All of them relate to his prescribing of medications under the prescription review program, which keeps track of doctors who prescribe and patients who take drugs which are subject to abuse or diversion, like opioids or benzodiazepines.
According to the document from the college, he was sent information from the Prescription Review Program with concerns about his practice, but he ignored them.
The concerns included the medications he was prescribing and the people he was prescribing them to.
The College’s document laid out the accusations against Davies more specifically:
- he’s accused of continuing to prescribe medication to patients even though they were getting the same prescription from another doctor
- that he continued to prescribe the medications even though he was told the patient wasn’t taking them.
- he continued to prescribe medications when urine tests showed the patient wasn’t taking them or when the test showed the patient was taking other drugs that could have an adverse reaction.
- Davies is accused of prescribing medication to patients without getting a written treatment agreement and/or without an appropriate assessment.
- that he prescribed drugs to people who were also in a methadone treatment program, and prescribed benzodiazepines to patients when he shouldn’t have.
- he’s accused of prescribing drugs in quantities, dosages, or combinations that didn’t meet standards
- Davies is also accused of failing to maintain appropriate records for his patients, and not writing out the rationale for his prescriptions appropriately.
There were no dates given for the offenses in the allegations.
These are all allegations and have not been proven. A hearing is pending with the province’s professional body for doctors, the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
This isn’t the first time there have been questions surrounding Davies and prescription drugs.
According to APTN in 2014, Davies’ license to run a methadone clinic was revoked by Health Canada. In a story a year earlier, APTN reported that patients were accused Davies of over-prescribing opioids to patients and then funnelling them to his methadone clinic.
